💧WaterLow; highly drought-adapted once established. Water only in prolonged summer droughts.
🗺️Zone3a-9b
Easy✨ deer_resistant
📏 Height: 1.5-2.5 feet (45-75 cm)
Ideal pH5.5 – 7.2
herb_non_graminoidLC
Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
Solanaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterDeep water 1-2 inches per week. Avoid wetting foliage to prevent fungal diseases.
🗺️Zone9-11 (Perennial), Grown as Annual in 2-8
Easy⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ fragrant_foliage
📏 Height: 3-10 feet (Indeterminate)
Ideal pH6 – 6.8
herb_non_graminoidNE
Tuberous Begonia, Tuberhybrida Begonia
Begonia tuberhybrida
Begoniaceae
☀️SunPartial Shade, Full Shade
💧WaterMaintain evenly moist potting medium; water at the soil level to avoid wetting foliage and crown, which incites fungal rot.
🗺️Zone9a-11b
Moderate⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ deer_resistant
📏 Height: 1-1.5 feet (30-45 cm)
Ideal pH5.5 – 6.5
herb_non_graminoidLC
Garden Tulip, Didier's Tulip
Tulipa gesneriana
Liliaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterWater thoroughly after planting in autumn to promote root establishment. Provide moderate moisture during active spring growth, then withhold irrigation completely once foliage begins to senesce in summer.
🗺️Zone3a - 8b
Easy⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 1-2 feet
Ideal pH6 – 7.2
herb_non_graminoidNE
Turmeric, Indian Saffron, Haldi, Yellow Root
Curcuma longa
Zingiberaceae
☀️SunPartial Sun, Partial Shade
💧WaterProvide abundant moisture during summer vegetative growth; withhold irrigation when leaves senesce prior to harvest.
🗺️Zone8a-11b
Moderate✨ fragrant_foliage
📏 Height: 3-5 feet (90-150 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
herb_non_graminoidLC
Turnip, White Turnip, Turnip Greens
Brassica rapa
Brassicaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterMaintain constant, uniform soil moisture to avoid pungent, woody, or cracked roots.
🗺️Zone2a-11b
Easy✨ Attracts Pollinators
📏 Height: 1-1.5 feet (30-45 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7
herb_non_graminoidLC
White Water Lily, European White Waterlily, Nenuphar
Nymphaea alba
Nymphaeaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterGrows permanently submerged in 30-150 cm of still water.
🗺️Zone4a-11b
Moderate⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 0.5-1 feet (15-30 cm floating)
Ideal pH6.5 – 8
climberLC
Watermelon, Wild Watermelon, Kalahari Melon
Citrullus lanatus
Cucurbitaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterProvide 1-2 inches of deep watering per week during vine growth and early flowering. Reduce watering 1-2 weeks before harvest to concentrate sugar levels in the fruit.
🗺️Zone2a - 11b
Moderate✨ Attracts Pollinators
📏 Height: 1-2 feet
Ideal pH6 – 6.8
herb_non_graminoidLC
Woodland Sage, Meadow Sage, Balkan Clary
Salvia nemorosa
Lamiaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterLow; established plants require deep irrigation only during extended meteorological droughts.
🗺️Zone4a-8b
Easy✨ fragrant_foliage
📏 Height: 1.5-2.5 feet (45-75 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.8
herb_non_graminoidLC
Common Zinnia, Elegant Zinnia, Youth-and-Age
Zinnia elegans
Asteraceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterIrrigate at the soil line / drip irrigation once or twice weekly. Avoid overhead watering to mitigate foliar fungal spore germination.
💧Water2.5-5 cm water per week; drip irrigation preferred to keep foliage dry and reduce foliar disease.
🗺️Zone3-11 (grown as annual); frost kills plants
Easy✨ fragrant_foliage
📏 Height: 1-3 feet (30-90 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
Beans: Soil pH, Planting Depth and Spacing (Green, Bush, Fava)
The three bean records in this database, green bean, bush bean and fava (broad bean), all sit in the same narrow soil window: pH 6.0 to 7.0, well-drained, and neither waterlogged nor droughted through pod fill. That window is not a preference, it is a biological constraint. Rhizobium nodules (the reason a bean feeds itself) stop fixing atmospheric nitrogen below about pH 6.0, and fava shows aluminium and manganese toxicity on acid ground before the common beans do. Lime to 6.0-6.5 if a test comes back under 6.0, then re-test: the correction takes months, not weeks.
Depth. Sow bean seed at about three times its own thickness and no deeper: 1 to 1.5 inches for green and bush bean, 1 to 2 inches for the larger fava seed. Sowing shallow is the safer error. Common bean will not germinate in soil still below 60°F (16°C) (seed sits and rots instead of swelling) while fava is the opposite and goes in four to six weeks before the last frost, which is why it also works as an autumn sowing. Neither wants a presoak: hydrate the bed, not the seed.
Spacing. Bush types are determinate and stop growing on their own, so 3 to 4 inches within the row and 18 to 24 inches between rows gives a canopy that closes without crowding; thinned stands dry out and crack their pods. Fava is taller and stiffer, so it takes 4 to 6 inches in the row with 24 inches between rows, and it benefits from a stake on exposed ground. Pole types are a different question: they need the trellis before the seed goes in.
After sowing. About an inch of water a week, held evenly through flowering and pod set: a dry week at first bloom drops the flower set, and a waterlogged week at harvest splits the pods. Inoculate seed if the bed has not grown a legume in the last four years, keep fresh manure out of the hole (it delays nodulation) and feed phosphorus and potash from a soil test rather than by habit. Full sun for all three. For the pH side of that, start from the soil pH by crop reference table and work out the rate with the lime requirement calculator.
